


the best of us

by jasondont (minigami)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Mind Control, Mind Control Aftermath & Recovery, no beta we die like etc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:14:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26856502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minigami/pseuds/jasondont
Summary: Once a month, Rex visits Cody in prison.
Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody & CT-7567 | Rex
Comments: 15
Kudos: 127





	the best of us

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BoliTheSenate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BoliTheSenate/gifts), [draconicPenartastic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/draconicPenartastic/gifts).



> this is Bleak. i'm sorry.
> 
> (thanks to the sunflare discord for the angst and the idea!!)

The shuttle is mostly empty. Rex wakes up when they’re entering the atmosphere, his light sleep interrupted by the rattling of the ship. The other passenger is a young woman--he recognises her from other trips, and he knows she does recognise him as well.  
They don’t talk, however. The girl --because she’s just that, a young girl, barely twenty if she’s a day, dark-haired and dark-skinned with bags under his eyes-- doesn’t even look at him. Rex doesn’t know if it’s shame or pride or just plain disinterest, and he honestly is too exhausted to care. 

When the shuttle finally touches down, they wait until the guards finish scanning the ship. After so long, they don’t even need to be told what to do, but they pay attention to the disembodied voice that asks them to please stay in their seats.   
Rex rubs his face, his skin clammy and cold, and looks through the small window on his left. The prison is built on the surface of an airless moon somewhere in the Mid Rim, its surface covered by permanent darkness. He can see the prison building, far away and made of high duracrete walls and harsh white lights, and not much else. 

It used to be an Imperial prison, not so long ago, designed to hold political prisoners, outspoken journalists and other dissidents. General Organa calls the fact that the New Republic uses it in more or less the same way as the regime they just deposed “dramatic irony,” but Rex just finds it darkly funny, and more than a bit worrying.  
If things go wrong again--and he’s starting to think that they will, probably sooner than later--the fact that he won’t be alive to see it happen is his only solace. Two wars are more than enough for an old clone.

The airlock connects to the ship with a loud clank, and both Rex and the girl stand up, approaching the door. He lets the girl go first once it’s finally open, and waits while the guards scan her and her ID. It’s very cold in the corridor, the durasteel grey and stained after years of little use and poor care. By the time it’s Rex’s turn, his knees are starting to rebel, and he limps the few steps that separate him from the guards.  
At this point, they also know who he is. The guard rotations never last more than two, three standard months, but this particular pair has been there long enough. The Twi’lek frowns, his dark eyes suspicious, but his Sullustan partner smiles at Rex, small and slightly sad, full of pity.

Rex is too old and too tired to be proud--he smiles back.

*

The cells are small but clean and almost warm, and as far as Rex knows, everyone eats the same food, both the prisoners and the guards. It’s still a prison, and when he finally reaches Cody’s cell, the man who used to be his brother looks almost happy to see him.

His guard --new kid, human, tall and blondish and kind-faced; she reminds him of General Kenobi-- deactivates the energy field to let Rex enter and then activates it once again, its faint thrum barely audible. Rex thinks he would have gone mad with that thing always on, but Cody seems mostly fine.  
Tired, and old, and too thin, but that’s expected. They were never meant to last this long.

Cody is already sitting in his usual place, on the other side of his little table. Rex sets the box in front of him and then takes a seat in the other chair. 

The chess thing wasn’t his idea--at first, he wasn’t even sure he wanted to see Cody, to have to deal with that stranger who wore his brother’s face and spoke with his brother’s voice but was cold and dour and brutal in a way his brother had never been.  
But Organa suggested it would be good for both of them, and then he let himself be convinced to give it a try.

Every time he steps back on the shuttle he swears it’ll be the last, but it’s been six months, and six visits, and while he still doesn’t know if it’s actually helping any of them in any way, he’s starting to come to terms with the fact that it may be better than nothing.  
Even if he yet has to win a game against the bastard. 

They don’t talk much. Rex doesn’t have anything to say that Cody wants to hear, and so they just play. Their games always last longer than the time they are allotted, but they never find it hard to pick it up where they left off.

“Check,” Cody says, his voice hoarse and low in the quiet.   
Rex scowls. He crosses his arms and looks down to the board. He immediately sees the problem, and he taps his head while he tries to think of a way to turn it back in his favour. Cody just waits, the smallest smirk on his face.  
He might not like Rex much, but he still likes winning. That at least hasn’t changed.  
Rex moves one of his pawns and doesn’t bother to hide his own smile when Cody’s fades away.   
“Now what,” he says, and leans back on his chair; Cody’s scowl deepens. He always had a competitive streak a mile wide. It’s part of what made him so extraordinarily good at his job.

He wears his hair still short, still regulation length, even if now it’s almost completely white. He raises a hand to the chip scar while he thinks, the thin raised line visible through the tight curls.  
Rex lowers his gaze back to the board, the guilt a heavy dark pit in his stomach. He should have looked harder for him--if he had done that, he’d have his brother back and not whatever Cody is now.   
A ghost, a monster, an unrepentant murderer, if the things that were shown during his trial are true--and they are. Rex checked. Cody --still dizzy from the surgery, the chip itself entered as evidence, as proof of his lack of agency-- had not even tried to deny they were, either. He had just stood there, pale and thin and so, so cold, and told them all that whatever had happened twenty years ago he was now a loyal Imperial officer.

“Check again,” Cody says. Rex blinks, shaking off the memories. He looks at Cody. He’s smirking once again, openly this time.  
“Haarchak,” he swears. He looks down to the board.

Cody waits patiently while he tries to find a way of countering his last move.   
He isn’t in a hurry. He already knows he’s won--he’s just waiting for Rex to catch up.

**Author's Note:**

> the idea behind this was, what if after a while, even if you take out the chip, the programming does not completely fade away. cody's had this for most of his life--whatever he was once, it's gone after two decades working for the empire.
> 
> i'm jasondont on tumblr, come say hi!


End file.
